The 122nd National Archery Association (aka U.S. Archery) was held in
Colorado Springs, Colorado the last week of July/first week of August, 2006.

At the beginning a traditional archery championship with wooden bows and
arrows was held, along with traditional clout and modern clout as well as
crossbow competitions. "Clout" emulates the kind of archery you see
in movies where the arrows are shot in a high arc over long distances, as though
at an opposing army. Nowadays, the enemy army is called a clout, which is
a stick in the ground with a ribbon or cloth attached at the top, and the
distances shot are from 110 meters for youth to 165 meters for adults, and 185
meters for adult compound archers. (compounds are those bows with wheels on
them).

The bulk of the week (four days) is spent by the archers shooting 36 arrows
per round, 2 rounds per day, at various distances. Men shoot 90
meters, 70m, 60m, and 30m , while women shoot 70m, 60m, 50m, 30m.
Youth archers are divided in a number of categories and distances.

Each set of four distances is called a FITA, so this tournament is a double
FITA.

After the Double FITA the archers are ranked by their scores and set up in
order to shoot one-on-one, in a competition called the Olympic Round (OR for
short). In just 12 arrows, one is declared the winner and moves on
while the other packs for home. Each arrow counts for up to 10 points, so
the perfect score is 120 points, and is rarely achieved even by the compound
archers with their let-off, mechanical release, magnified sights, and faster
arrow speeds.

The junior archers (17 and 18 years of age) held a special round-robin event
where each shot against every other archer, and given points to rank based on
performance. The top three of each were designated as the US Junior
World Team, and will journey in October to Merida, Mexico to a world
championship tournament to represent the U.S.